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[0:00] Aaron Albano: You're listening to Tony Telecasts from The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. I'm Aaron Albano.

[0:11] Moe Brady: And I'm Moe Brady.

[0:21] Aaron Albano: Welcome listeners to our miniseries about the Tonys, bringing you all the drama behind the drama of a theatre season in Broadway history.

[0:29] Moe Brady: In each podcast episode, we watch a telecast of a previous Tony Awards, not only the performances, but the opening and speeches, to see how it reflects the season as a whole. So let's dive in and talk about the 2009 Tony Awards.

[0:42] Aaron Albano: The 63rd Annual Tony Awards were held on June 7th, 2009, at Radio City Music Hall, and hosted, for the first time, by Neil Patrick Harris.

[0:51] Moe Brady: Heading into the ceremony, Billy Elliot, the musical, led the pack with 15 nominations, followed by 11 for Next to Normal, and 8 for Shrek the Musical. The Public Theatre revival of Hair led the revivals, also with 8 nominations. In addition, in the running for Best Musical and Best Musical Revival were Rock of Ages, Guys and Dolls, Pal Joey, and West Side Story.

[1:13] Aaron Albano: But aside from the telecast itself, what was happening in 2009, Aaron?

[1:17] Moe Brady: The 2008-2009 season marked a lot of highs and lows in the nation, Moe. A significant high was the election and inauguration of the U.S.'s 44th president, Barack Hussein Obama, our country's first black president in its history. However, significant lows that swept the nation's zeitgeist were the passing of Proposition 8 in California, which effectively banned same-sex marriage in the state of California, and the continued downturn left by the previous administration. That recession definitely had its effect on the Broadway industry that season.

[1:48] Aaron Albano: While we saw 45 new shows open that Broadway season, we also saw 48 Broadway productions close that same season. Some new, but many long-running shows, unable to withstand the impact that the economic downturn had on the city. Among those Broadway shows that closed were Crybaby, Curtains, Sunday in the Park with George, Passing Strange, A Catered Affair, A Chorus Line, Rent, Xanadu, Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, Grease, Spamalot, Gypsy, and Spring Awakening.

[2:19] Moe Brady: That's a lot of shows that closed.

[2:20] Aaron Albano: That fucking sucks, man.

[2:36] Moe Brady: Man, that is a lot of shows to close. Those weren't even the shows from that season that closed, because that season also had a lot of shows that closed within the time frame.

[2:48] Aaron Albano: Yeah, let's pour one out for these non-nominated musicals. A lot of which closed during that season.

[2:54] Moe Brady: First up is Title of Show, which ran for 102 performances at the Lyceum. Are you a Title of Show fan?

[2:59] Aaron Albano: I am a very big Title of Show fan. Of those 102 performances, I think I saw four of them.

[3:05] Moe Brady: Oh my goodness. Is that the most percentage of shows run that you have seen, a Broadway show?

[3:13] Aaron Albano: Likely. Also, that season was A Tale of Two Cities, which ran 60 performances at the Hirschfeld, starring James Barber.

[3:21] Moe Brady: I saw that once.

[3:22] Aaron Albano: I saw that zero times. 13, 105 performances at the Jacobs, starring a young Ariana Grande. Irving Berlin's White Christmas only ran 53 performances at the Marquis, but it was also a limited run.

[3:35] Moe Brady: I love that show. Was this the first time it came? Because it came multiple times, right?

[3:38] Aaron Albano: Yeah, I think it was two years in a row. Often these sort of holiday shows come like wham-bam, one right after the other. I think How the Grinch Stole Christmas was two years in a row. Irving Berlin's White Christmas was two years in a row.

[3:50] Moe Brady: Elf was a few years.

[3:52] Aaron Albano: I think Elf was like 2010 and 2012. It was close.

[3:55] Moe Brady: Oh, so it skipped one. The shortest run of a Broadway musical in the season, The Story of My Life, five performances at the Booth, starring Malcolm Getz and Will Chase. We just can't get away from Will Chase, can we?

[4:08] Aaron Albano: Nope. We weren't sure whether to put this last musical in this section because it was nominated for some awards, not for best musical, and ran past the season, which was Nine to Five. It opened in April at the Marquis, still was running by the broadcast, but closed in September. It was Dolly Parton's entrance to the Broadway stage, starring Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, and Megan Hilty, and had a lot of notable ensemble members. Jeremy Davis, Anne Parada, Neil Haskell, Lisa Howard, Galen Gilliland, Mark Myers. We have a lot of fan favorites in that group.

[4:43] Moe Brady: So how'd you like this telecast, Mo?

[4:47] Aaron Albano: Okay, perhaps even before the opening, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is that I would call this the most iconic sound-plagued Tony Awards ever.

[4:57] Moe Brady: Oh, correct. When I think about sound problems at the Tony Awards, it's like it's a thing that a person thinks about. This is the worst.

[5:04] Aaron Albano: This is the one. Because I remember Guys and Dolls, I remember a lot of them, but I forgot about Elton's, which is the very first thing we see. And I watched it, and I was like, oh, this is this one? Great. Just like upset already. And it didn't get better.

[5:21] Moe Brady: In the opening, it did not get better. In the opening, Elton John's mic isn't on, and then West Side Story's mics aren't on when they do the rumble. You can hear all the backstage lip trills, like you're just hearing like a woman go,

[5:32] Aaron Albano: It's Sutton Foster's, right? I heard it was Sutton Foster's.

[5:34] Moe Brady: Oh, that's brilliant. I thought it might be the Maria because it's right before she comes on.

[5:39] Aaron Albano: Oh.

[5:40] Moe Brady: But who knows? Great. In the Shrek number, when the ensemble comes in, only Jen Cody's mic is on, which is a blessing and a challenge in and of itself.

[5:48] Aaron Albano: Yeah. And do you want to talk about the Guys and Dolls? Guys and Dolls is the most iconic for me.

[5:53] Moe Brady: It is. I feel like we'll get there when we talk about the performances.

[5:57] Aaron Albano: OK, OK, great. Now, this is the sound problem, Tony's, but this is also there are camera problems.

[6:04] Moe Brady: Oh, my gosh.

[6:06] Aaron Albano: For example, when Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey win for best score, the camera cuts to Dolly Parton.

[6:12] Moe Brady: Dolly Parton.

[6:13] Aaron Albano: Backstage.

[6:14] Moe Brady: To recent Tony loser.

[6:16] Aaron Albano: Immediately recent Tony loser.

[6:19] Moe Brady: Dolly Parton. I was like, come on, at least like, did you ever hear that story about when the 2004 Tonys, when they announced Avenue Q, they had the Wicked title cards ready to go and they accidentally hit them and then changed them right away when they announced Avenue Q, because everyone assumed that Wicked was going to win.

[6:37] Aaron Albano: The camera luckily didn't catch any of those.

[6:40] Moe Brady: But that's like this camera was part of the problem.

[6:44] Aaron Albano: Yes. Audra McDonald references like she comes out to say something like, hey, I'm referencing myself in a photo on a screen, but it's not there.

[6:54] Moe Brady: Uh huh.

[6:56] Aaron Albano: To me, the worst in this sort of status is how the camera mixes up Janet McTeer and Harriet Walker when they're shown as nominees.

[7:05] Moe Brady: And thank God for Marsha Gay Harden just calling it out in her speech.

[7:10] Aaron Albano: However, tech problems aside.

[7:12] Moe Brady: Let's go.

[7:13] Aaron Albano: Well, we haven't reached the biggest tech problem, which is Bret Michaels' injury.

[7:18] Moe Brady: Oh, yeah. So for those of you who missed this, we're going to get to the opening in just one second. In the opening, Bret Michaels, famed rock star person.

[7:28] Aaron Albano: Sure.

[7:29] Moe Brady: I think he had like a reality show on at this time.

[7:32] Aaron Albano: Oh, sure. That's helpful, too.

[7:34] Moe Brady: All right. And wrote or originally performed one of the songs in Rock of Ages.

[7:37] Aaron Albano: Yeah. That feels right.

[7:39] Moe Brady: Right. He backs up into a descending set piece that knocks him onto the ground.

[7:44] Aaron Albano: Well, because he was living for the applause.

[7:46] Moe Brady: Right. And then didn't turn tail in time.

[7:49] Aaron Albano: Yes. And then got decapitated by the drop.

[7:53] Moe Brady: Not really decapitated, folks, but he did receive medical treatment for a split lip and a broken nose.

[8:01] Aaron Albano: Wow.

[8:02] Moe Brady: But according to a lawsuit that he submitted to CBS in 2011, the rocker also suffered from brain bleeding after the war.

[8:11] Aaron Albano: Wow.

[8:12] Moe Brady: Yeah. So this is in 2009. In 2010, Michaels was hospitalized when doctors discovered a brain hemorrhage and then suffered a stroke, which almost killed him, according to the lawsuit.

[8:22] Aaron Albano: So he files this lawsuit against CBS in 2011, saying that he wasn't given proper notice.

[8:29] Moe Brady: However, the lawsuit was settled in May 2012 with the terms of the agreement unknown.

[8:34] Aaron Albano: Wow. I don't know what happened.

[8:36] Moe Brady: I always heard that he didn't go to rehearsal, but that's like a full room rumor.

[8:39] Aaron Albano: I know.

[8:40] Moe Brady: Yeah. Although now that I now that I'm hearing that it was worse, I feel bad laughing about it.

[8:45] Aaron Albano: Yeah, I definitely was like mean about this non Broadway guy coming into our Broadway awards and sure being are we always were so, especially in this like we hate it when the Tony Awards try to like pander to non theater audiences.

[8:59] Moe Brady: Uh huh.

[9:00] Aaron Albano: So just Bret Michaels appearance here annoys me anyway. But then hearing that he, you know, suffered brain bleeding, it's I feel bad.

[9:09] Moe Brady: Yeah.

[9:20] Aaron Albano: How'd you like this opening?

[9:24] Moe Brady: It is a mess.

[9:25] Aaron Albano: It is the messiest, messy, mess, mess.

[9:28] Moe Brady: Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.

[9:30] Aaron Albano: Can you walk us through?

[9:32] Moe Brady: Well, okay. First, we have Elton John with no mic on the piano, singing electricity with the young and the older bellies, which I live for. And then we have like a mashup, like a tonight medley of West Side Story's Tonight and then Guys and Dolls' Luck Be A Lady Tonight. And then Rock of Ages comes out singing nothing but a good time with Bret Michaels. And then we get Stalker Channing and Aaron Tveit singing a mashup with I'm Alive and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, which I have a question about this performance in a second. And then Shrek comes out led by their three leads singing Freak Flag. And then Dolly comes out with the cast of Nine to Five to sing Nine to Five. And then Liza comes out singing And the World Goes Round. Is that what she's saying?

[10:21] Aaron Albano: I think so.

[10:22] Moe Brady: Something like that. And then it finalizes with the cast of Hair singing Let the Sunshine In, which God bless the cast of Hair, just putting a cherry on top.

[10:34] Aaron Albano: A delicious cherry.

[10:36] Mo Brady: Is this the Pal Joey's performance?

[10:38] Aaron Albano: Because Pal Joey doesn't have a performance. They don't even do B-roll. Nah. Like I was like Stockard Channing singing Bewitched by Wendy Willard. That's all we get from Pal Joey. And we have forgotten about it by the time Let the Sunshine In happens.

[10:52] Mo Brady: Oh for sure you have forgotten about it. That's too bad. That's too bad for Pal Joey.

[11:06] Mo Brady: As if there hasn't already been enough weird things in this Tony's.

[11:09] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[11:10] Mo Brady: I think the other thing that just feels like an interesting choice to me is the presentation of National Tours performing 75 seconds of a well-known musical as sort of an advertisement for shows on the road. I was like oh this is why this show's three hours and not two. We get to see the National Tour of Mamma Mia performing Dancing Queen, Legally Blonde performing So Much Better, and Jersey Boys performing Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You into A What a Night.

[11:41] Aaron Albano: I mean high level thoughts for these three. I don't know. I might be bailing you for this one because my main takeaway was like this is cool but what are we doing here? What are we doing here? Like we've gone like fully into commercial right?

[11:56] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[11:57] Aaron Albano: Here's my question.

[11:58] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[11:59] Aaron Albano: Five Frankies in Jersey Boys is obviously not the show. Obviously you're not trying to like showcase the show or a National Tour you're just doing a commercial. Even Legally Blonde which I feel is that would be good. I would like to see Becky Gulsvig from the National Tour of Legally Blonde singing So Much Better.

[12:20] Mo Brady: Sure.

[12:21] Aaron Albano: But 75 seconds is so quick.

[12:24] Mo Brady: Yeah.

[12:25] Aaron Albano: If you don't know the number and you sort of have like already ramped yourself up to where she starts in the song.

[12:30] Mo Brady: Uh-huh.

[12:31] Aaron Albano: You're just like what? What? What happened? She's so much better than what? Than what? Than who? What's before? And why? So much better than before what?

[12:46] Mo Brady: Yeah. I guess that's true because also like Dancing Queen is more known in like the world.

[12:51] Aaron Albano: So it can't keep my eyes off of you.

[12:53] Mo Brady: I guess. I just wondered would they not have been better served by a commercial?

[12:57] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[12:58] Mo Brady: Just like 30 seconds of B-roll? Throw it up.

[13:01] Aaron Albano: Yeah. I don't know. I mean but again like it got people their Tony debuts so.

[13:06] Mo Brady: You don't want your Tony debut being the weird national tour Mamma Mia Alumni Association. You want your Tony award to be debut to be like I'm nominated for best friggin musical and here I am performing that song.

[13:20] Aaron Albano: Sure.

[13:21] Mo Brady: But beggars can't be choosers.

[13:23] Aaron Albano: So.

[13:24] Mo Brady: Oh.

[13:25] Aaron Albano: True. I've been on zero Tony awards just so it's clear.

[13:29] Mo Brady: Speaking of mediocre things how did we celebrate the best play nominees in 2009?

[13:34] Aaron Albano: Oh man.

[13:35] Mo Brady: Wow. We're just we're just ragging on 2009 right now. So this year we got either the leads of the show or people related to the production in some way come on to that. It's the Passerelle. It's that like mini stage.

[13:50] Aaron Albano: Oh yeah.

[13:51] Mo Brady: It wasn't a Passerelle. It was like they put a stage. They put a stage in the middle of the orchestra.

[13:56] Aaron Albano: Yes.

[13:57] Mo Brady: Is it supposed to look like a Tony envelope? Is that the image that we have?

[14:02] Aaron Albano: Wow. I don't remember.

[14:04] Mo Brady: I never I never even. I literally just thought of that now. But those people come on to the little stage in the middle and they directly address the audience about what the show is. And then after that intro they play like 12 seconds of B-roll.

[14:22] Aaron Albano: And I think it's only because we just came from 1988 that I was like this is the most lackluster. This is the opposite of Hannah Montana. This is the worst of both worlds.

[14:36] Mo Brady: It's like a boring introduction. And then give you like a moment of footage from the show but like not enough to sink your teeth into.

[14:43] Aaron Albano: No. Not at all. Like not even a little bit.

[14:46] Mo Brady: Okay. One good thing that I loved in the 2009 Tony Awards so far was the memoriam section. It's where Bebe Neuwirth I think she tells the audience about Gerald Schoenfeld but then introduces the Broadway Inspirational Voices who sing What I Did for Love over the names of the people we lost that year. How did you feel about this?

[15:10] Aaron Albano: Fine. They never gave us like the full screen experience. We were always watching the screens in Radio City with footage of Broadway Inspirational Voices rather than ever like going full screen with seeing the montage.

[15:27] Mo Brady: Oh interesting. That was a weird choice.

[15:30] Aaron Albano: Yeah. Either the orchestra or the BIV were always in frame.

[15:35] Mo Brady: Right.

[15:36] Aaron Albano: When we saw the screen. That's true. Versus I feel like what they have done more recently is they just whatever showing on the screens in Radio City they also make that full screen for the viewers at home.

[15:49] Mo Brady: So it was like after a while I was like nah like I have seen enough candles. I feel like there were a lot of candles on stage.

[16:00] Aaron Albano: Maybe I made that up. But I was like no I know I know that Broadway Inspirational Voices is singing. You don't have to show me like a bad camera angle of them in front of a digital screen anymore.

[16:14] Mo Brady: I just just just show me who you're who we're remembering please.

[16:18] Aaron Albano: I think I just I think I just loved that arrangement of what I did for love by the BIV that I was like OK this is nice.

[16:27] Mo Brady: I'm sure BIV can do no wrong.

[16:30] Aaron Albano: Yeah.

[16:31] Mo Brady: 2009 man.

[16:36] Aaron Albano: All right. We're going to come back and do part two of 2009 where we talk about the nominated performances and give our Yelp reviews.

[16:44] Mo Brady: But yes. So you have a week to prepare. We wanted to now randomly select our next Tony telecast to watch. That'll give you and us the following week to research the season as a whole and bring our most surprising findings.

[17:02] Aaron Albano: Yes.

[17:03] Mo Brady: So let's select our sixth Tony telecast.

[17:06] Aaron Albano: Wow.

[17:07] Mo Brady: Even six of these.

[17:09] Aaron Albano: Well we're about to do six of these.

[17:11] Mo Brady: I put a handful of infamous Tony Awards. Well not very many left on pieces of paper in this basket and I will now randomly select one to explore for next week's episode.

[17:25] Aaron Albano: Drum roll please Mo.

[17:27] Mo Brady: Butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter butter.

[17:43] Aaron Albano: OK.

[17:44] Mo Brady: Our next Tony telecast we will be watching is.

[17:47] Aaron Albano: Whoa.

[17:48] Mo Brady: Nineteen eighty two.

[17:50] Aaron Albano: We're going back.

[17:51] Mo Brady: We're going back.

[17:52] Aaron Albano: This is 42nd Street.

[17:54] Mo Brady: Is it. What's the other thing.

[17:56] Aaron Albano: I officially was not alive yet.

[17:58] Mo Brady: It's 42nd Street and some.

[18:00] Aaron Albano: Thirty six Tony Awards.

[18:02] Mo Brady: This is.

[18:03] Aaron Albano: Nine in Dreamgirls.

[18:05] Mo Brady: That's what this is.

[18:06] Aaron Albano: Nine.

[18:07] Mo Brady: Oh.

[18:08] Aaron Albano: OK.

[18:09] Mo Brady: Well to join us for our next Tony recap. Be sure to do your homework with us on the nineteen eighty two Tony Awards. But to hear the rest of our recap on the 2009 Tony Awards.

[18:25] Aaron Albano: Be sure to join us on Friday.

[18:27] Mo Brady: The Ensemblist was produced today by me Mo Brady.

[18:30] Aaron Albano: And by me Aaron Albano.

[18:32] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Wasif Sami for providing the background research for this Broadway season. There are two great ways you can be helping the Ensemblist right now. One is by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

[18:48] Aaron Albano: And the second is by becoming a Patreon member at Patreon dot com slash the Ensemblist.

[18:53] Mo Brady: Please follow the Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts on Spotify on Apple Podcasts or at BPN dot FM the home of Broadway Podcast Network.

[19:05] Aaron Albano: You can also follow us on Instagram.

[19:07] Mo Brady: Thanks for listening. Until next time.

[19:11] Aaron Albano: Did I say all the things?

[19:13] Mo Brady: I said all the things you did.

[19:15] Aaron Albano: Did you notice I wasn't watching?

[19:17] Mo Brady: And so I just said all the things you can say some of the things now.

[19:21] Aaron Albano: We're good.

[19:23] Mo Brady: We're going to keep it right there.